March 01, 2019

Civil Justice – The Next Big Shiny Object?

Some may wonder why we write about issues that seem so obscure considering the tweeting mob boss in the White House, his allied dictators and fake national emergencies, the obsessions of cable news hosts (“can a sitting president be indicted after all?"). or pick whatever shiny “objet du jour” you like.

Indeed, while news-followers were fixated on Michael Cohen or maybe even Kim Jong-un this week, we watched as Congressperson and Senator after Congressperson and Senator introduced major new legislation – literally bill after bill - to ban the insidious use of forced arbitration clauses and class action waivers in consumer, employment and small business contracts.

Here's the coalition letter in support of the main piece of legislation, H.R. 1423/S. 610, the "Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act." It has 147 House co-sponsors and 32 Senate co-sponsors, and counting. Wow! (See some coverage of the major news conference here, here, here.)

But being in such great company is not the only reason why we stay focused on the civil justice system. Here’s why we really do it.

In 2018, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spend $95 million lobbying (far more than anyone else), a third of which was spent by the their “tort reform” branch (Institute for Legal Reform); the Chamber’s #1 issue in terms of lobbying reports was “torts;” the Chamber’s #1 bill was H.R. 985, the anti-class action bill, and Mayer Brown (their pro-forced arbitration law firm), led their outside lobbying expenditures. Liability and tort issues may not be shiny but they sure are big in Congress. We need to keep talking about them and hope someone hears.

That’s why we are proud to tell you about the new Loyola Consumer Law Reviewarticle from the Center for Justice & Democracy, which discusses the Chamber's push to pass that terrible class action bill in the last Congress, H.R. 985, showing it to be a corrupt and ultimately failed effort. The article shows how the forces actually running things in Congress, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, hope you never pay attention to us. They’d prefer to bulldoze over your legal rights with as little notice as possible, thank you very much.

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